(A/N: Where in the name of god did this come from? GinRan isn't even one of my OTP's. Cripes.
Oh well. Enjoy. Or something.)
In the end, it is she who kills him.
Her Haineko pierces him from all sides before he can speak his release command. He crumples to his knees, a mangled mess, the tendons in his sword arm cut. His blood mingles with the silver sand of Hueco Mundo, and still he wears that insufferable smile of his.
You've gotten stronger, he observes appreciatively. I'm glad I got to see you again, Ran-chan. His face shifts, so he is wearing her smile, his real smile, Blood trickles from the corner of his mouth.
He falls without another word. His hair on the sand is silver on silver.
She bites her lip. She can tell that he was being sincere. For her, he had been honest.
It would have been nice if my capture had lasted a little longer…I'm sorry.
She can count the times she has seen his real smile on one hand. Then, and now.
And when they were children in Rukongai, before there was Soul Society and Aizen and Las Noches and when there was only Gin-kun and Ran-chan, two friends or, perhaps, something more...
But she can't think of that, she chides herself, scrubbing away a wayward tear (where did that come from?). He was a traitor. He was a threat to Soul Society. He was mad and wicked and wrong and—
And he lies there, silver hair on silver sand like stardust.
The taste of victory turns to ash in her mouth.